Chinese Studies public talk

April 29, 12:00pm - 1:30pm
Mānoa Campus, Moore 319 (Tokioka Room)

Fri, 4/29, Kuan Yuan-yu:

“Contemporary Musical Mixing, Interconnectedness, and Indigeneity amongst the Islands of Taiwan and Okinawa”

Abstract: Divided by the political boundaries of China (both Republic of China and People’s Republic of China) and Japan, the island groups of the Ryukyus and Taiwan along with their cultural identities embody a process in which islanders must negotiate their cultural values not only with the two Chinese states and the Japanese empires, but also with American militaristic penetration. The consequences are twofold: the construction of an idealized ethnic identity and a hybridization of their cultural practices. Heretofore, most public narratives about their musics and performing arts have, in large part, been constructed and defined, in terms of various East Asian hegemonies, classification systems, and political agendas, thereby disregarding indigenous narratives which include the existence of established circuits between these island groups.

By highlighting indigenous and Austronesian connections, this paper examines a concert titled East Asian RootsTrip in the summer of 2015. Featuring musicians from Okinawa, Taiwan, and the Philippines, the concert was held in an archeological site—the Sakitari Cave—where one of the earliest human settlements was found in Okinawa mainland (as evidenced by the excavation of 8,000-year-old pottery). Focusing specifically on the musical collaboration between an Okinawa Salsa group—Kachimba—and a Taiwanese indigenous musician—Suming Rupi—this paper uses textual, visual, and sonic analyses of their musics to problematize the notion of cultural hybridity. I argue that the Okinawan concept of champurū—literally meaning “mix”—should be regarded as Austronesian. Investigating a form of champurū-ness along with the historically-bound collectivity on the islands of Taiwan and Ryukyus, this paper uses the Austronesian concept of pathway (i.e. lalan or dalan) as a lens to understand the way in which these islanders deconstruct, combine, and (re)construct meanings in the process of creating a fusion music. I critique the claim that cultural hybridity is only a postmodern outcome of globalization, colonialism and imperialism, expressing through the form of “global pop.” Rather, I suggest the concept of cultural mixing is already embedded in an Austronesian ethos of longstanding advanced by both physical and metaphorical notions of indigenous mobility.

By identifying the characteristics of musical mixing and collaborations in this concert between Taiwanese and Okinawan musicians, the paper offers an approach to understanding contemporary island cultures on the East China Sea/West Pacific Ocean that appear “hybrid” in nature. Foregrounding the cultural interconnectedness and historical connections amongst these islands, this paper further seeks to decenter the present hegemonic narratives about Taiwan and Okinawa, proposing that indigeneity on these islands functions not only as a way to destabilize the authority of nation-states but also to offer a futurity that expands what it means to be indigenous in East Asia.

About the speaker: Trained as concert artist of the erhu (Chinese two-stringed fiddle), Yuan-Yu Kuan received the master’s degree in ethnomusicology in 2012 at the University of Hawaiʻi at Mānoa (UHM). His master’s thesis entitled Hybridity, Indigeneity, and Gendering: Chang Hui-Mei, Popular Music, and Taiwanese Identity, examined how the internal conflict of an indigenous female pop singer affects individual perception and articulation of identity construction in contemporary Taiwan. Currently he is a PhD candidate in ethnomusicology at the same institution and his dissertation investigates indigenous connections amongst the islands of the Ryukyus and Taiwan.

Cosponsored by the Center for Japanese Studies and the Center for Okinawan Studies, UHM


Event Sponsor
Center for Chinese Studies and Confucius Institute at UHM, Mānoa Campus

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